I couldn't resist putting an egg in the incubator 5 days after I started the Easter hatch. It was just too beautiful. Well, today/night/morning at 3am my spouse woke me up saying it had hatched! It was another sticky chick, but at least this one managed to get out of his shell before getting...
Here are my totals. Finally did eggtopsy on my last two. I feel better now, because I don't think it was my fault they didn't make it.
12 Set
6 hatched normally
2 hatched w/ assistance
1 early quitter
1 late quitter (we don't know why)
1 pipped a vein
1 pipped upside down into fluid end...
Noticed the late egg I pipped had started to go...so I did an eggtopsy. Oh it was such a pretty little chick never absorbed the yolk, I am starting a thread asking for help figuring out why it died, if any of you are willing to look at it.
Still no action from the last 3 bator eggs. All 8 of our hatches, including the two assisted, are doing GREAT though!
67% hatch rate for us so far, 100% fertility.
I'm a bit disappointing we didn't get more, but hey it could have been worse!
EDIT: moved to new reply
I did candle them and didn't see any movement, however I'm not confident in my assessment because I didn't notice movement in any when I candled them day 18 either...maybe I will try again? Is this the only way to tell?
When do you guys call it quits on your eggs? I have three still in the bator. Two are not pipped, one I opened the air cell and took a peek, did not puncture inner membrane (still moist!). I can see a chick, a yolk, but no movement. The other two I have listened to,and did not hear anything...
Still waiting on my last few eggs to give me a sign. :/ In the meantime i decided to check the chixks for pasty butt and good thing i did because one of my gooey chicks was sealed shut! After a nice warm butt shower, rub and blowdry she was put in the brooder where she promptly pooed. She...
no not currently. our incubator is very jerry rigged this year so will probably document it when we have more than duck tape and a bread board on a cardboard box holding it together
We used the arduino temp/humidity sensor with good results so far. (8 of 12 chicks hatched, 2 early quitters, 2 still waiting)
EDIT: we also use an accurite as a second opinion, but the controls are hooked to the arduino.
So far out of 12 eggs set, we have had 8 hatch, 1 early quitter, 1 suspected later (but still early) quitter, and 2 still haven't done anything. Come on chickies!! I need to get out of the house and away from the bator so I stop fretting!
I hear you. I think I might have killed one of mine time will tell if the egg hatches... this is also my 1st hatch. newbies unite!
Edit- oh you're NOT a first timer. heehee. oh well!
Ugh. My little assisted chick are driving me bonkers! I looked in the bator just now to find they both managed to stick their heads through the chicken wire on the far side of the bator, even though I had put up a barrier and no other chick had even came close to doing so. Crazy chickens, into...
I am pretty confident about our temps. We had 6 (out of 12) hatch on day 21, no problems. We had one early quitter for sure, but I suspect 2. I have kept the moisture around 65-70% and only increased it to 80% when these two guys were taking a long time zipping. I was trying to prevent them...
Well, this morning my two zippers were still half-hatched. One had managed to get her head out, but not her bottom, and then immediately got her back and head glued to the towel lining the bottom of the bator. The other guy was still in his shell - and was pretty much super glued in there...
Try again, this was our first hatch and it is going pretty well even though we were using a ugly jerryrigged coolerbator. LOL. And we are total newbies. We read all the different articles on this website and did several "mock trials" of our incubator the few weeks before the HAL, but other...
Thanks for your input! The only reason I'm worried, is that I cannot see the air cell anymore, which makes me think the chick is in it and breathing, but unable to get new external air because it has not pipped. I put a tiny hole in the air cell section and am leaving it to do the rest on it's...
Well, we assisted our two zippers who decided to stop zipping half way. It had been 12+ hours since they attempted to zip. We finished zipping the shell for them (but left the membrane), wrapped them in wet paper towels and set them back in the incubator. We are going to let them go overnight...